Mark Daly (Fianna Fail)

This week we will see the publication of a €24 million Interphone study of the potential health effects of mobile phones. I ask the Leader to bring the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources to the House to discuss the matter. Data for the study stopped being collected in 2004 and six years have been spent arguing about what should and should not be included in the report. What is not included is a reference to the potential health effects of mobile phones on children.

The European Environmental Agency has stated, with regard to the effects of any item on the health of the general public, that we should always err on the side of caution and implement the precautionary principle. It took 54 years to prove that smoking caused lung cancer. We cannot afford to wait that long for science to prove beyond all reasonable doubt that mobile phones cause brain tumours. The European Union is conducting a study of this matter, but there have been more than 2,000 studies of mobile phone masts and their potential health effects. The time for study is over; action must begin. I, therefore, ask the Leader to organise a debate on the issue.